Northern Lights from the ‘Final Frontier’

For those looking to adventure on a Northern Lights holiday this winter, you are in for a treat, however even as the leading specialists in arranging Northern Lights trips, even we can’t arrange views like those recently released that show aurora dancing over the pole from space from the International Space Station – it is simply breath-taking to watch.

The green glow of the Aurora is caused by solar wind or high-energy particles from the sun interacting with the Earth’s atmosphere. From above you get to see the big picture as the waves of light seem to flow over the earth’s surface.

The green light, commonly associated with the Northern Lights from earth, caused by Oxygen atoms in our atmosphere about 60 miles up, and the red aurora above this could either be caused by interaction with Oxygen at higher altitudes (around 200 miles above the surface of the earth) or can also be caused by an interaction with Nitrogen gasses in our atmosphere.

This footage, as seen on NASA Johnson YouTube channel, states that the footage captures the Aurora Australis (in the southern hemisphere) as seen from the International Space Station, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth.